Officials say Obama has been telling Israel he wants to “give sufficient time” to the current round of sanctions before starting the war, though they say that in the end the result will start be a war because Iran is “behaving like sanctions don’t matter.”

It does seem to have pushed back the start of the war a bit, however, as Panetta had previously predicted Israel would launch an attack between April and June, but Obama advisors are now calling September or October the “sweet spot.”

This could mean a literal October surprise, with President Obama either starting a huge war with Iran just ahead of the 2012 presidential election, or having Israel do so and jumping in immediately thereafter.

Such a timing for the war could be seen as politically desirable for the president, with several of the Republican candidates condemning him for not being more hawkish against Iran, and likely to center a foreign policy debate on his not starting this particular war.

2644539 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fnews.antiwar.com%2F2012%2F02%2F17%2Fobama-officials-iran-sanctions-will-fail-leading-to-war%2FObama+Officials%3A+Iran+Sanctions+Will+Fail%2C+Leading+to+War2012-02-18+03%3A48%3A53Jason+Ditzhttp%3A%2F%2Fnews.antiwar.com%2F%3Fp%3D26445 to “Obama Officials: Iran Sanctions Will Fail, Leading to War”

"The new reports come just one day after Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta conceded that Iran isn’t actually developing a nuclear weapon, and DIA chief Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess said that Iran was unlikely to start any war on their own”. This is a game they are playing before starting any war with any nation, they did that with Iraq so why not keep the table of no return turning. Yet it might be just a game that they play keeping Israelis happy not letting them to start the war because if they do then a hell of fire would be lose and US needs to get involved, certainly US don't want any peace, thats for sure, if that was the case then they would start with Israel demanding the apartheid regime change to a democracy, I mean a functioning one, not the one that Senator Kerry makes money out of nor the phony one that Barbara Boxer or Liberman is talking about.

If the U.S. or Israel were to attack Iran with a substantial bombing Iran appears to be signaling they will only offer token resistance. At least the response to the killing of its nuclear scientists and other provocations by the CIA funded MEK suggest a light response from Iran. It takes two countries to fight a war and neither side has the resources to carry on a sustained heavy conflict.

So the MONSTER of the clash of the titans has its time up and a beauty be served to the beast to live on.

My God,how easily they are pingponging timings to unleashing the killing machines to eliminate millions of souls.Is this how American Election would be won from now on,on permanent basis.WHAT A BLOOD SUCKERS.

The real question is who's really in control. The day after Sec of Defense Panetta, the person supposedly in command of the military comes out and clearly states that there's no reason at all for a war with Iran, unnamed officials start talking to the press about how we are almost certainly going to war with Iran.

I've doubted for a long time now that we have anything like civilian control of the military in this country any more. This seems to be another dot connecting in that direction.

At the start of World War One, the countries involved only had artillery ammo for a few months. It can equally be said that at the start of World War One, the countries involved didn't have the resources to sustain a heavy conflict. And all of the authorities were convinced that it didn't matter because it would be a short war precisely because they knew they didn't have the resources for a sustained conflict. Gee, how did that turn out?

The US has become a criminal state which is a threat to us all. We urgently need a second super power (China) to keep the US under control, just as it happened in the past with the Soviet Union. What happened to the Americans who love freedom? How can they put up with the bunch of madmen who rule them?

The Iranians ARE building an A-bomb. The sanctions AREN'tT working. Somebody WILL have to attack Iran. AMERICA is the only friendly attacker capable of that. America IS listening. ISRAEL fully supports any AMERICAN attack on Iran and will take the consequences.

Panetta has repeatedly said for the past month or more that Iran is NOT trying to develop a nuclear weapon. From Jan 9, 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu0QgDXB1m8
I get the impression that Panetta realizes now that the situation is getting out of control and he is trying to stop the momentum toward war with Iran — while continuing the usual bluster. Attacking Iran would be even more illegal than the attack on Iraq (which was based on Saddam actually having WMDs) since here the US is actually admitting in advance that Iran is not developing nuke weapons, let alone has any.

If there ever was a time, again (I lived thru the 60's antiwar activism), it is now. Where is the voice of the people? Everyone I talk to says they are not OK with another war. They are tired of war. They are tired of our government spending our future on rathole places we have no intention of owning.

Hey!!! Antiwar.com, are you listening? Where is your leadership on this? Why is it the ONLY place I see any sort of antiwar sentiment is here – and the more strident voices are usually by those commenting. Antiwar.com and it's big-named contributors should be out front clamoring for a national discussion (referendum maybe?) against this new war – hell, all the wars going on now.

Why are the American people sitting this one out? Surely it's not because everything stateside is going hunky-dory? The American people need to understand that these wars cost money that could actually be used for something good – like reducing poverty and improving infrastructure HERE, at home.

Perhaps we are too comfortable. Perhaps what it's going to take is the American people being shaken out of their malaise of comfort. I hope I'm wrong but if the Archons get their way and we go to war for the Israelis, there will be some shaking waiting for the American people.

Read 'em, and in a lot of cases, weep. At least Le Duc Tho had enough character to refuse the award. The Nobel prize for Peace is in many cases like winning the Pulitzer prize for Plagiarism.
I did always have a soft spot for Secretary of War Elihu Root (winner, 1912) though, if only because of his stand on the Federal Reserve 'system': '[if Congress votes in favor of it] … you will have created an engine of inflation, (1913)".http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laur…

This war is about hegemony, not nuclear.
And Iran is fully prepared.
Are we ready to witness the biblical fight of David and Goliath ?
It means Israel born in 1948 dead in 2012 ? and Palestine be born again to it's border of before 1948 ? For the Israeli going back to Egypt, France,Germany,England, Ethiopia and Russia ?
Is Obama ready to make that change ? Let us watch.

(AP) LONDON – An attack on Iran would carry huge costs, Britain's foreign minister warned Saturday
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a newspaper interview that while Iran's suspected drive for atomic weapons could lead to a dangerous nuclear standoff in the Middle East, he favored more time to let diplomacy and economic pressure run its course.

Hague told the right-leaning The Daily Telegraph that striking at Iran's disputed nuclear program would have "enormous downsides.”

Iran is not Iraq where US and EU made it hard for the Iraqi people to defend themselves against NATO daily bombardment, Iran is prepared for anything, that is why the leaders of deceptions backing off attacking Iran for now. In the other hand EU and its people struggling with this enormous economy situation where even the government of Sakozi or Markel have no solution for it so they need to back off. Look the idea of father of all zionism Paul Wolfowitz is dead, to stop this madness US either needs to abandon EU or vise versa and for EU and US to look at their real problems which is Israel and its apartheid regime, otherwise until the end of the world people of the world going to suffer for something that is not true, a falsified democracy advocated by US and EU.

Obama is every bit as much a psychopath as Bush and Netanyahu. And let's not let the American people off the hook–they continue to elect warmongers and then remain silent during these illegal and immoral wars. America runs on blood.

There is no way Iran will drop bombs on Israel. Changes of killing Palestinians and destroying the al-Aksa Mosque and Dome of the Rock are too great. Attacking Iran will enable the Isaelis to forcibly transfer the Palestinians out of their homeland. Any moral compass we have as Americans will be totally destroyed supporting any preemptive attack on Iran. Shame on us.

The Killing of its scientists cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt that as an Israeli or another countries activities so NO retaliation, I am even sceptical about the recent attack in Thailand it has the MEK all over it!

However dont think that if the US or Israel actually attack there will not be a response. Iran will show the world they were attacked and then it will be on. Iran has been planning for decades on how to respond to American Aggression having been invaded by America Before in WWII Iran was Nuetral the allies took it over, and then in the 50s by the CIA.

THis time expect substantial naval damage, even US war games in the Gulf have reported loss of large numbers of Surface Ships including Carriers. Also expect every refinery in the region to be missiled. Israel itself may end up being targetted in a big way as well. Iran has plenty of weapons that can reach Israel.

This is about the US Petrodollar and nothing more, except as an excuse.

The modern Day David and Goliath story will again be held in Israel the big question is are the Palestinians the real natural born semetics of the region going to be Davids and smite the Foreign Goliathan Interlopers.

It is not lethargy. It is their state of mind of paper tigers and armchair generals. I would not count on any meaningful action from within. Their knowledge and opinions are delivered by their popular media which is, by far, more successful in proliferation of propaganda than the media was in former Soviet Union at times where there was no access to any alternative sources of information. It was not difficult to convince them about WMD in Iraq; and it is easy now to make them believe that Iran is about to take away their freedom.
The war and killings are not the issues these days. What is now important, during upcoming election circus, is a fundamental question dominating all media discussions: who will pay for contraceptives.

That's because neither party is interested in ending the wars… If they were to end the wars then that would give the press more time to look at what the pols are really doing behind the curtain – and that's the last thing they want.

The 60’s didn’t have the patriot act, FEMA camps, IP tracking and still had Habeas corpus to protect them. The American people are not a scared of Iran, they are scared of the US government. Another restrain is the economic prison. This country has gone so haywire that if we stop working for a few days to protest you lose your house, miss your payment or have your job taken away. The American people are not lethargic they are imprisoned.

They're not alone in their 'suzerain desires for domination in the ME', the USA has been acting like the old 'colonial poweres Africa. If they weren't such pals and friends of democracy, there might even be a little 'neo-colonial' rivalry developing